Digital Sky Technologies

Jul, 14

Naspers makes strategic investment in DST.

Jun, 3

John Lindfors to join DST as a partner in September 2010.

Apr, 28

Digital Sky Technologies to acquire AOL's ICQ instant messaging service.

Apr, 19

Groupon receives $135 million from DST and Battery Ventures.

Apr, 12

Tencent invests $300M in DST and establishes strategic partnership.

Apr, 7

Odnoklassniki.ru launches applications platform.

Feb, 17

Allods Online open beta begins in North America and Europe.

Feb, 11

Zynga acquires social game developer Serious Business.

Jan, 28

Dow Jones names the DST investments in Facebook and Zynga as “VC Deals of the Year”.

Dec, 16

Mail.ru named the most popular web portal in Ukraine, according to Gemius research.

Dec, 16

DST leads $180 million investment in Zynga.

Dec, 01

DST helps to create Russian Internet powerhouse by merging its stake in Mail and Astrum.

Nov, 19

Vkontakte, with 50 million registered users, acquired VK.com domain name with plans to launch internationally in 40 languages in 2009.

Nov, 16

Astrum Online Entertainment has announced that its 35 online games now total 30 million users and that the company is dominating the online games market.

Nov, 4

Perfect World Becomes Available For Mail.ru Users.

Oct, 10

Astrum Nival has announced that Allods Online MMORPG will be available for players, starting 15 October 2009.

Sep, 28

Mail.ru Agent Reaches 10 million Active Users.

Aug, 19

DST successfully completes a tender offer to purchase $100 million of Facebook common stock from existing common stockholders.

Jul, 01

Verdi Israelian, former co-Head of CIS operations for Goldman Sachs SSG, has joined DST as a Partner to oversee its CIS operations. At Goldman Sachs in Moscow, Verdi has led several private equity investments in consumer, retail, new media and real estate sectors in Russia and Kazakhstan. Before Goldman Sachs, Verdi was a deputy head of Russia Investment Banking at Morgan Stanley and completed multiple IPO and M&A transactions, helping to raise over $5 billion for Russian corporates.

Jun, 29

David Ebersman, former Genentech Chief Financial Officer, has joined Facebook as the new CFO of the company.

Jun, 23

Mail.ru reported its financial results for the fiscal year 2008. The company reported revenues of $74.6 million and net income of $34.3 million, which implies 46% net profit margin.

Jun, 03

Astrum Online Entertainment announced the roll-out of a new payment system specifically aimed at the industry of online entertainment and gaming.

May, 26

DST has made a $200 million investment in Facebook in exchange for preferred stock at a $10 billion valuation. In addition, DST is also planning to offer to purchase at least $100 million of Facebook common stock from existing shareholders.

May, 18

20 million accounts are now registered in Astrum Online Entertainment’s game products. The company’s user base is now growing at 50,000 new sign-ups daily.

May, 18

Nazar Yasin, former Internet Investment Banker at Goldman Sachs, has joined Forticom Group as a CEO to spearhead Forticom’s growth efforts. Vitaly Rubstein, founder and current CEO, will continue with the company as Chairman of the Board and Head of Product Development.

May, 08

Nival Online, which is a part of Astrum Online Entertainment, signed an agreement with Gala-Net Inc. on publication and operation of Allods Online, AOE’s cutting-edge free-to-play MMORPG game, in United States, Canada and Mexico.

Apr, 17

HeadHunter has become a member of The Network, an international network of 36 job-sites around the world, enabling employers that use hh.ru to now fill vacancies abroad without having to switch to services of international headhunting agencies.

Apr, 03

The B2B-Center platform saw 2,131 transactions valued at over 11 billion Rubles in Q1 2009. The number of participants increased by 3,058 companies quarter over quarter and reached 24,154.

Mar, 30

Mail.ru signed a strategic partnership agreement with Astrum Online Entertainment, on distribution of Legend: Legacy of Dragons” game on Mail.ru’s portal. Any user of Mail.ru’s services can now get the gaming experience without any additional registration.

Mar, 18

Vkontakte.ru, the leading Russian social networking platform, reached a milestone of 30 million registered user accounts within just 30 months of operation. 1.5 billion daily page views generated by visitors to the site make it the most popular online service in Europe.

Feb, 26

Vkontakte.ru announced the roll-out of a cutting-edge self-service contextual advertising system. With the use of innovative targeting technology, the solution allows advertisers to have full control of their campaigns and gain significant return on investment.

Feb, 24

Odnoklassniki, the Russian social network that is part of the Forticom Group, reached a milestone of 30 million registered user accounts. The very first user profile was created in March 2006.

Dec, 08

The Mail.ru company announced setting up of an Ukrainian subsidiary, Mail.ru Ukraine.

Nov, 05

Astrum Online Entertainment, the largest Russian developer and operator of online games, is penetrating the markets of Germany and China with its “Legend: Legacy of Dragons” game. In Germany the game will be marketed by Astrum GmbH and in China the company will cooperate with Snail Game on promoting the product.

Sep, 15

Mail.ru acquired the Internet portal Spame.com and Smaper ICQ-client technology for mobile phones. On the basis of the acquired asset, Mail.ru launched mobile.mail.ru section that specializes in mobile phones testing and reviews.

Aug, 29

Mail.ru acquired a 30% stake in a dating service site, Mamba.ru.

Jul, 30

Two of the three largest electronic payment operators on the Russian payment processing market, OSMP and E-port, have formed a unified entity, OE Investments, to streamline business processes, derive synergy from collaboration and further increase companies’ competitive advantage.

Jun, 10

Forticom Group has acquired a majority stake in Nasza-Klasa.pl, one of the most popular websites in Poland.